Here is the FDA press release on the Estrella situation.
And (thanks Tami Parr) here is a good update about the situation from The Seattle Times.
I’m taking down this post temporarily because it is a heated issue and I will not be on the internet for about a week. I’m getting a lot of backchannel mail from it which leads me to think I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. When I have a little time, I will clarify.
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Tagged Estrella Family Creamery, fda, mad sheep, morningland dairy
Here are a few on my favorite cheese folks with Bay Area roots:
Sheana, Emiliano, Brad, Ocatvio, and me. What an awesome picture!
Finally, here’s my last entry on my favorite new (to me*) cheeses at this year’s American Cheese Society Conference. This is one of the things that differentiates me from other food bloggers… I feel no need to be timely.
Out of respect for the cheese makers, I probably wouldn’t reveal what cheese I voted for as Best in Show if the cheesemaker for the actual winner hadn’t pulled me aside at the awards ceremony and asked me point blank if I voted for his cheese. The Best in Show winner: Extra-Aged, Pleasant Ridge Reserve** is an amazing cheese. Forage-based, nutty, pungent, grassy, great for cooking, even better for plain ol’ eating, this is the only cheese to win the ACS Best of Show more than once and this is the third time!
It was especially poignant that these folks won this year because the founders of the company, Mike and Carol Gingrich, announced that they were retiring from the cheese business a week after the conference. The cheese will carry on in the very capable hands of Andy Hatch, but when I found out that this was the Gingrich’s last conference, I was very glad they won. I also know I was not the only cheese person with tears in his eyes when they walked up through a standing ovation to accept their award.
The cheese I voted for Best of Show…
The Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery Bonne Bouche. I wrote about this cheese years ago, before it was actually released actually,*** because I happened to be in Vermont when they work working on their final recipe. Since then, this cheese has been perfected. I am not hyping you when I say that the Bonne Bouche I tasted at the judging was the most technically perfect French-style, US-made, cheese I think I have ever tried. Soft-ripened goat milk cheese, covered in ash, creamy, assertive, and complex. It blew me away.
I love the Spring Brook Tarentaise**** as well. Similar to the Pleasant Ridge, it’s an Alpine-style cheese, but this one is softer but much stronger and more intense. It’s definitely too strong for some, but I love to see a US-made cheese riding that side of the line. I had the previously mentioned Caldwell Crik Chevrette in my top 3 instead of this one, but the Tarentaise was right in there. I had a plate of my final 6 cheeses and it was a very tough decision.
By the way, check out the hall where the awards ceremony was held this year! I wish I had taken a picture when it was full!
*well, up to now it was new to me. I know all the cheeses I’m writing about today pretty darn well
**reservations aside about the confusing near-redundancy of naming something “extra-aged” and “reserve”.
*** Here’s it is in the back of our rental car!
****Most folks in California have only tasted the organic milk Thistle Hill Tarentaise (also from Vermont) which does not have as intense a washed-rind and which is not aged as long as the Spring Brook. They have very similar recipes but are very different cheeses!
Jim Boyce died last week. He was the long-time owner of Marin French Cheese Company and a really nice guy. I didn’t know him well, really just from going to the same events for many years now, but his loss will be felt by everyone in our cheese community.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Marin French since they are my hometown cheese plant. I grew up stopping there on any family trip to Pt. Reyes or Limantour Beach. While Marin French (or simply The Cheese Factory to locals) is the longest continually operating cheese plant in the country,* it has had a number of owners over the years. Until Jim took over and revamped the operation, I had actually stopped buying their cheese, even though it kind of broke my heart. Jim and family totally turned the operation around.
At the American Cheese Society Competitions, it was always an epic battle between him and Sid Cook as to who would win the most ribbons. True, they usually always had the most entries in the competition as well, but I know I wasn’t the only one who looked forward to their friendly taunting and ribbon-mugging. It was always one of my favorite parts of the conference. It was even suggested that the cheese society get a separate scoreboard for the two of them so we could all know the ribbon count.
I got to sit at the same table as Jim and his wife at one ACS cheese tasting event. We went around the table eating amazing cheeses and when we got to the perfectly ripe and luscious Epoisses, we tried it and I said, “Ah, it’s ok, but it’s no Schloss.”** They laughed, but they also had the good grace to demure.
Marin French has won lots of awards but Jim was always humble and always there to support new cheesemakers and donate cheese to worthy events. He will be missed.
*Eat it Vermont!
**Except for both being washed rind cheeses, they are not really similar beyond both being stinky and pungent. Epoisses is rated as one of the best cheeses in the world and almost no one gives Schloss the credit it deserves for being such a long-time American classic.
The one cheese that I voted for in the top three that didn’t place was the Estrella Family Creamery Caldwell Crik Chevrette:
Frankly, I don’t understand why more judges didn’t put this in their top 3. I love this cheese. It is everything you want in a washed-rind. A blend of raw goat and cow, this is probably in my top 5 American cheeses of any type. It’s stinky, so it announces its presence right away. It is complex. You can taste butter, tanginess, fruit, grass, and more. It has a great aftertaste. And it is just a perfect ugly/beautiful rustic cheese. Amazing cheese.
*Unfortunately this cheese is not available right now as the Estrellas are working with the FDA to create a safer environment and procedures for making young, raw milk cheeses. Tami Parr from Pacific Northwest Cheese Project has covered this the best of anyone.
I don’t know anything about this, but the magic of a google vanity search tells me that Slow Foods Chicago has my book as their book club selection for Sunday, 10/24. Awesome! Check it out, Chicago, wish I could be there.
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Another fabulous cheese was the Sartori Reserve Pastoral Blend:
Though this company does that mid-word, corporate, internet-capitalization thing that drives me nuts (“SarVecchio” Parmesan, “BellaVitano”, etc…) they make some pretty damn good cheese. This is a big wheels of sheep/cow cheese that shows the best flavors of both milks. Nutty and sharp with a great caramel aftertaste.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged acs 2010, acs favorites, american cheese society favorites, sartori
Gordon ("Zola") Edgar 